Jay Livingston

Jay Livingston, born Jacob Harold Levison on March 28, 1915, in McDonald, Pennsylvania, was an American composer and Broadway book writer who worked in partnership with lyricist Ray Evans throughout his career. He had an older sister, Vera, and a younger brother, Alan W. Livingston, who went on to hold executive positions at Capitol Records and NBC television. Livingston died on October 17, 2001, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 86, and was interred at Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery, where his tombstone bears the inscription "Que Será, Será."

Livingston studied piano under Harry Archer in Pittsburgh before enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania, where he organized a dance band and first encountered Evans, who was also a member of the group. The two began writing together in 1937. Their professional breakthrough came in 1946 with "To Each His Own," which reached number one on the Billboard charts for three separate artists and held positions in the top five of the "Most Played On the Air" chart during four different weeks. The following year, "Buttons and Bows" became another multi-million seller, with four artists reaching the top ten in 1948, and the song earned Livingston and Evans the Academy Award for Best Original Song. They closed the decade with "Mona Lisa" in 1949, which charted for seven popular artists and two country artists in 1950, sold a million copies for Nat King Cole, and brought the pair a second Oscar. A third Academy Award followed in 1956 for "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," written for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Man Who Knew Too Much. In 1957 they contributed "Tammy" to the film Tammy and the Bachelor.

Beyond film, Livingston and Evans composed television themes for Bonanza and Mister Ed, the latter of which Livingston himself sang. Their Christmas standard "Silver Bells," written for the 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid, was originally titled "Tinkle Bells" before the title was changed due to a common connotation of the word "tinkle." They also wrote "Never Let Me Go" for the 1956 film The Scarlet Hour, and Johnny Mathis recorded Livingston's song "All the Time," among others. In 1950, Livingston appeared as himself alongside Evans in the New Year's Eve party scene of Sunset Boulevard, a film that featured Nancy Olson, who would later become his sister-in-law.

On Broadway, Livingston served as co-composer and co-lyricist with Evans on three productions. Oh, Captain!, which opened in 1958, earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. Let It Ride followed in 1961, with Livingston and Evans again sharing composing and lyric-writing duties. The 1979 revue Sugar Babies featured the pair as contributing songwriters, with their composition "The Sugar Baby Bounce" included in the production.

Livingston was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in recognition of his body of work. In 2004, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission installed a historical marker in McDonald, Pennsylvania, commemorating his contributions to American music.